Happiness is...

My friends, from where I sit, my daughter is the most beautiful thing on the entire earth (with the exception of her mother, of course). I could not begin to fully describe the joy that she brings into my life on a daily basis. I love watching her discover all the small intricate elements of marvelous things like... THE FLOOR. She is rolling around like crazy and is so close to crawling that it's driving her crazy. She has NEVER been happier because she is finally able to DO something. I'm loving every minute of it.

She was up coughing three nights this week. Her cough is such a small sound but it has the power to shake my entire world. Even though I knew she was perfectly fine and just getting through her cold it was nearly impossible to sleep. Alesha and I are pretty sure we got around 8 hours... over three nights. :( We slept from 10-4:30 last night and practically threw a party today. Aurora is feeling much better and we anticipate some big sleep tonight.

I've been catching up on some of your blogs and I'm glad to see that the majority of us are walking with the Lord. It amazes me how we are a body and Jesus has us all off doing different things... but we're still attached and He is still the head. I like that. Whatever you are up to, keep following after the Big Dawg. Whether you see me or not, I'm walking right beside you.

On that note, keep Alesha and I in prayer. We are having some family problems that are rough. They aren't physical, they're emotional. There's confrontation and we have made some decisions that have made some people unhappy... but someone else's happiness isn't always the most important thing. It's complicated and the internet is too public a forum to discuss it. Just keep praying for us because we need the strength to stand in the face of it all.

Christmas... I've been thinking about it a lot. I have been depressed about it a bit because Alesha and I have very little money and won't be doing much buying this year. I love buying people gifts and I love getting gifts. Yeah... I know... materialistic... I'm just being honest. I made a comment on the air that "there won't be much under the tree this year" and later that day God got my attention. "Who told you to say that? I didn't say that there wouldn't be gifts this year." I changed my attitude and I changed my thinking. On the spot I asked God to take care of Christmas: the presents, the family, the stress, the everything.... and the result has been amazing. In looking solely at God, I don't care what I get for Christmas this year. I still want something to open... c'mon... it's Christmas... but it just isn't that important. The Christmas Spirit has really hit me. I don't have a ton of money but I've been giving stuff away. :) Some of my "toys" are actually for things I do at work, but I'm grabbing just about everything I can find and handing it to people. I want God to use me to help other people have a great Christmas. God has given me several opportunities to bless the right people and it was been so exciting!!! I'm going to start talking about it on the air this week and I might even give it a cheesy name like the RIOT'S Christmas Challenge or something stupid like that. If sharing my blessings is bringing me this much joy and freedom shouldn't I use my platform to introduce others to the same thing? Another funny thing about this: it seems like the more stuff I've been giving away, the more free stuff that lands on more doorstep (literally)... and I give that away. Pretty awesome.

For those of you that are interested, I will tell you that the Superman box set that I snagged earlier this week is really, REALLY cool. I am sad to say that I have barely touched it due to all the business that is day to day life but Alesha and I are going to try to find some time to delve into it this weekend. We also snagged an advance copy of Miami Vice (one of the advantages of working in the media). I'm going to try to fit that in as well.

Games. Games. Games. The holidays are bringing lots of them. I spent some of Aurora's nap this afternoon playing Call of Duty 3 on the Wii. While the graphics for it are not as quite as good as Red Steel (one of the coolest looking Wii games and the only other FPS on the system), COD3 stands head and shoulders above RS in game play. The Wii-mote actually WORKS with the game instead of leaving you frustratedly turning pirouettes while the Yakuza laugh and shoot at you. I am going to give COD3 on 360 to Erik, but he is out of town this weekend and I'm going to try and play some of that to compare the two. I'm sure the graphics are far better, but the Wii does have some great gameplay. I also got Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam and MOST IMPORTANTLY Rainbow Six: Vegas today. RSV is the game that I have been wanting to play for a VERY long time but didn't have the trade to snag it. It randomly appeared in the mail today. SWEET. Oh... and there is this other game... I think it's called Zelda...

WOW.

It's all the hype and a little more. Like the other Wii titles it suffers in the graphics department (though it still looks great) but it is on track to be legendary. Pacing, control, fun, creativity, MASSIVENESS... it's all there.

Of course, I don't remotely have time to play this stuff which is why I'm going to have Hiro stop time and allow me to catch up for a while. Heroes this week was a thing of sheer beauty. If you aren't watching it, you should.

I think that wraps it up. I'm currently reading Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six novel (after a long, LONG wait on it from half.com) and looking forward to a weekend with my family.

Much love my friends!